ABC's Mickey Mouse Move With Story George Stephanopoulos Hid Donations To Clinton Foundation

When George Stephanopoulos interviewed "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer and attacked the author rather than attempt to find out what was in his book, everybody assumed George's motivation was bias in favor of the Clintons (he was Bill Clinton's press secretary). But today we learned there was an additional reason Stephanopoulos had donated $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation, and until today it was a secret. It was first discovered by Andrew Stiles of the Free Beacon, but in a real Mickey Mouse move, instead of responding to the Stiles request for a statement, The Disney-owned ABC leaked the story to Dylan Byers of Politico.

In April 26th episode of This Week (see video below), Stephanopoulos didn't really interview Peter Schweizer, author of "Clinton Cash" he repeatedly badgered his guest about the accuracy of his book and chose to focus on Democratic attacks against the author. During the heated discussion, Stephanopoulos focused on Democratic Party accusations that Schweizer dad “partisan interest. They say you used to work for President Bush as a speech writer. You are funded by the Koch brothers.”

Stephanopoulos didn't seem interested in the actual substance of Schweizer’s book, instead acted as a Clinton defender. Now we know why.

As reported by Dylan Byers:

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos has given $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, charitable contributions that he did not publicly disclose while reporting on the Clintons or their non-profit organization, the On Media blog has learned.

In both 2013 and 2014, Stephanopoulos made a $25,000 donation to the 501 nonprofit founded by former president Bill Clinton, the Foundation's records show. Stephanopoulos never disclosed this information to viewers, even when interviewing author Peter Schweizer last month about his book "Clinton Cash," which alleges that donations to the Foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton's actions as Secretary of State.

In a statement to the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos apologized and said that he should have disclosed the donations to ABC News and its viewers.

"I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work they’re doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply," he said. "I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize.

(...) In its own statement on Thursday, ABC News said it was standing behind its star anchor.

"As George has said, he made charitable donations to the Foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record," the network's statement read. "He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation. He’s admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him."

Here's another weird part of this story. It was originally discovered by Andrew Stiles of the Free Beacon. Stiles found out about it last night and asked ABC for comment. They promised one would to send a statement but instead, they leaked the story to Dylan Byers, who ran it today. Only after Byers posted his story did ABC get back to Andrew Styles. Mr. Styles account can be read here.


The fact that he gave money to the Clinton Foundation is not the problem. Journalists should be allowed to give money to any charity they wish. The corrupt part is that he did the contentious interview without letting the viewers (or Schweizer) know he had a personal attachment to the subject.  That is a dereliction of his responsibilities as a journalist, but sadly it happens all the time at the mainstream media.